Awards and Nominations
- 1962: Miles Franklin Award for The Well Dressed Explorer
- 1965: Miles Franklin Award for The Slow Natives
- 1965: Moomba Award for The Slow Natives
- 1972: Miles Franklin Award for The Acolyte
- 1975: The Age Book of the Year Fiction Award for The Kindness Cup
- 1980: Australian Literature Studies Award for Hunting the Wild Pineapple
- 1980: Member of the Order of Australia (OAM)
- 1986: ALS Gold Medal for Beachmasters
- 1989: Patrick White Award
- 1990: New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards, Christina Stead Prize for fiction for Reaching Tin River
- 1992: Officer of the Order of Australia (OA)
- 1996: The Age Book of the Year Fiction Award for The Multiple Effects of Rainshadow
- 1999: Miles Franklin Award for Drylands
- 2000: Queensland Premier's Literary Awards, Fiction Book Award for Drylands
- 2002: New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards, Special Award for being "a trailblazer"
Read more about this topic: Thea Astley